The giant or helicopter damselflies are huge, slow-flying species that breed in small water-carrying cavities in trees (phytotelmata) and hunt by plucking spiders and their prey out of their webs. All but one of the six genera and about twenty species that formerly constituted the family Pseudostigmatidae are confined to tropical America. The monotypic genus Coryphagrion is restricted to thick coastal forests of Kenya, Tanzania and possibly Mozambique: its similarity to American ‘pseudostigmatids’ probably arose by convergence. In fact, the superficially very dissimilar genus Oreocnemis from Mt Mulanje in Malawi may be related most closely. C. grandis is Africa’s largest damselfly (abdomen 70-100, hindwing 40-60 mm), and the only one known to breed in tree-holes and other phytotelmata (e.g. cut giant bamboo). Adults are very elusive, and largely black with some greenish markings. The species is more easily found as larva, which even inhabits water-filled coconut husks and giant snail shells lying on the ground. [Adapted from Dijkstra & Clausnitzer 2014]

About ADDO

African Dragonflies and Damselflies Online is a collaboration between ConsEnt (Stellenbosch) and ADU (Cape Town) funded by the JRS Biodiversity Foundation. ADDO brings all available knowledge together of Africa's 770 known species of Odonata.
Read more...

About ConsEnt

By combining Conservation Ecology and Entomology, our department at Stellenbosch University brings together a considerable body of teaching and research expertise in the rapidly growing important field of conservation in agricultural and development landscapes.
Read more...

About ADU

The ADU aims to contribute to the understanding of biodiversity and its conservation. We achieve this through programmes that involve citizen scientists, long-term monitoring, research and innovative statistical modelling.
Read more...